Lake Toya Hot Spring — photo: Wakimasa · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Lake onsen in Japan: Toya, Kawaguchiko, Biwa and the hot spring towns on a lake shore
Search for an onsen by a lake and you mostly get hotel pages for one lake at a time: Toya, Kawaguchiko, Biwa. This guide puts the lake towns side by side. Some sit on hot water that comes out of the ground at 50 to 80 °C; others are on water so cool it has to be heated. Some are an hour from a big city by train; one is seven hours from Sapporo. Here is which lake gives you what, with the numbers from our records.
The short answer
- From Sapporo: Lake Toya, about 2 hours, hot salt water at 50.3 °C.
- From Tokyo: Kawaguchiko under Mount Fuji, about 2 hours, or Kami-Suwa on Lake Suwa, about 2½ hours, with 65 °C sulfur water.
- From Kyoto and Osaka: Ogoto on Lake Biwa, under an hour, with a station of its own.
- For the hottest lake water: Akan in eastern Hokkaido (50 to 80 °C) or Hawai on Lake Tōgō in Tottori (42 to 61 °C).
All the times on this page are rough estimates from our access data, not timetables. Check the connection on the day.
How many lake onsen there are
Our records hold 1,538 onsen across Japan. Nineteen have 湖 (ko), lake, in their Japanese name, and seven of those are in Hokkaido, where the big caldera lakes are. Many lakeside towns do not carry the word, though: Ogoto on Lake Biwa, Kami-Suwa on Lake Suwa, Kanzanji on Lake Hamana and Hawai on Lake Tōgō are all named after the place, not the lake. So the list below goes by where the town is, not what it is called.
A lake does not make the water hot. What matters is what is under it. The caldera lakes of Hokkaido sit on volcanoes, and the water there is hot. Lakes in plains and basins, such as Biwa and Hamana, have cooler springs. You can see that in the numbers below.
Lake Toya, Hokkaido
Lake Toya Hot Spring 洞爺湖温泉 (Tōyako Onsen) is the lake onsen most people mean. It is a resort of large hotels along the south shore of a round caldera lake, with the active volcano Mount Usu behind it. The water is a chloride spring, recorded at 50.3 °C and pH 6.7, close to neutral, with 1,410 litres a minute. Chloride water is salty and leaves a thin film on the skin, so you stay warm after you get out, which suits a lake that can be cold even in summer evenings.
Getting there: about 2 hours from Sapporo. Take the JR train to Tōya Station on the line towards Hakodate, then a local bus up to the lake. The JR Pass covers the train. Tōya-Tsukiura (40 °C, pH 8.4) and Naka-Tōya (39.8 °C, pH 8.77) are smaller springs further round the lake; the record gives a bus of about five minutes from Tōyako Onsen to Tsukiura, but Naka-Tōya is about 30 minutes by car from Date-Mombetsu Station.
Toya is often paired with Noboribetsu; that guide compares the two.
Kawaguchiko and Yamanakako, under Mount Fuji
Fuji Kawaguchiko Onsen 富士河口湖温泉郷 is a group of inns and hotels round Lake Kawaguchi, one of the Fuji Five Lakes. Our record lists 50 inns. It is a simple spring, mild and low in minerals, and we have no source temperature for it. People come here for the view of Fuji across the water, not for the water itself.
Getting there: about 2 hours from Tokyo, to Kawaguchiko Station on the Fujikyū line, then a short walk or bus to the shore. That line is not JR, so the JR Pass does not cover the last part. Highway buses from Shinjuku also run direct. On the next lake east, Yamanakako is recorded at 26.1 °C and pH 10.2, strongly alkaline, with seven inns, about 40 minutes by bus from Fujisan Station.
If the water matters more than the view, the three best onsen near Mount Fuji explains why Isawa, below the lakes, has hotter springs.
Lake Biwa: Ogoto, near Kyoto
Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, and Ogoto Onsen 雄琴温泉 on its west shore is the easiest lake onsen to reach from a big city. It has its own station, Ogoto-onsen on the JR Kosei Line, under an hour from Kyoto and Osaka; the JR Pass covers the train, and you do not need a car. Our record lists nine inns and 489,487 visitors a year.
The water is a simple spring at 30 °C and pH 8.58, mildly alkaline. That is below body temperature, so the baths are heated. Mount Hiei and Enryaku-ji are about 5 km away in a straight line, so it works as a base for the temple on the mountain as well as for Kyoto. Our records also hold a separate Biwako Onsen, a simple spring at 34.3 °C.
For other water near the two cities, see onsen in Kyoto and Osaka.
Lake Suwa: Kami-Suwa, in Nagano
Kami-Suwa Onsen 上諏訪温泉 is on the east shore of Lake Suwa, a basin lake in the middle of Nagano. It has hot water: a sulfur spring recorded at 65 °C. Sulfur water can tarnish silver, so take jewellery off before you get in.
Getting there: about 2½ hours from Tokyo on the JR Chūō Line to Kami-Suwa Station, then a short walk. No car needed, and the JR Pass covers it. Takashima Castle is 0.6 km away and the shrines of Suwa Taisha about 4 km. Shimo-Suwa, at the north end of the lake, is the old post town by the shrine, with 5,000 litres a minute of chloride and sulfate water.
Eastern Hokkaido: Akan and Kussharo
Some of the hottest lake water in our records is at Akan Onsen 阿寒湖温泉, on Lake Akan in the east of Hokkaido: a sulfur spring at 50 to 80 °C, with 22 inns. It is also the farthest. The record gives about 7 hours from Sapporo, by JR to Kushiro and then about 2 hours on a local bus. Most people fly into Kushiro instead, or drive.
North of Akan, the shore of Lake Kussharo has Kussharo-kohan Onsen at 59.8 °C, reached by Akan Bus from JR Mashū Station, and Kawayu nearby has the lowest pH in our records, 0.8, strongly acidic. Elsewhere in Hokkaido, Shikaribetsu-kohan (71 °C) and Shikotsuko (33.2 °C, about 2 hours from Sapporo with a 40-minute bus from Chitose Station) are small. The east is a trip for a car and several days; see Hokkaido onsen.
Western Japan: Togo, Shinji and Hamana
- Hawai Onsen はわい温泉, on Lake Tōgō in Tottori, is recorded at 42 to 61 °C, chloride and sulfate, with 11 inns and 122,827 visitors a year. About 3½ hours from Kyoto or Osaka: JR to Kurayoshi, then a 16-minute bus. Across the same lake, Tōgō Onsen runs 85 to 94 °C, the hottest lakeside water on this page, by Matsuzaki Station on the JR San'in Line.
- Matsue Shinjiko Onsen, in the city of Matsue on Lake Shinji, is recorded at 77 °C, chloride and sulfate. About 4 hours from Kyoto or Osaka. Matsue Castle is 0.9 km away. It pairs well with Tamatsukuri, just outside the city.
- Kanzanji Onsen, on Lake Hamana in Shizuoka, is a chloride spring at 23.8 to 33.7 °C, so heated. About 3 hours from Tokyo or 2½ from Kyoto: JR to Bentenjima, then a 23-minute bus. It is roughly halfway between the two cities.
And the lakes near Tokyo you may have heard of
Lake Ashi in Hakone has inns and hotels on its shore, but most of Hakone's hot water is in the valley towns lower down; the Hakone guide goes through which area has which water. Near Nikko, Chūzenji Onsen sits by Lake Chūzenji and Kegon Falls, and Nikkō Yumoto (49.3 °C sulfur, 23 inns) is beside the small Lake Yunoko at the end of the bus line, about 80 to 85 minutes from Nikko. See the three best onsen near Nikko.
Which lake, for the trip you have
- Short on time, no car: Ogoto from Kyoto, Kawaguchiko or Kami-Suwa from Tokyo, Toya from Sapporo.
- Hot water at the source: Akan, Kami-Suwa, Toya, Hawai and Tōgō, Matsue Shinjiko.
- The view first: Kawaguchiko, but the water is mild and we have no temperature for it.
- On the JR Pass: Toya, Ogoto, Kami-Suwa, Hawai and Kanzanji. Kawaguchiko and the last stretch to Matsue Shinjiko are on private lines.
Things to know before you go
At most lake resorts the onsen is inside the hotels, so the view of the lake comes with a room or a day ticket to that hotel's bath. Some hotels sell day entry, some do not, and the times change; check with each. For bathing without a night's stay, see onsen day trips.
Where the source is below about 40 °C, as at Ogoto, Kanzanji and Yamanakako, the water is heated, and often recirculated. That is normal. How to read the board that says so is in onsen water types.
The bath rules are the same as anywhere: wash first, keep your towel out of the water. See onsen etiquette, and onsen with tattoos if that applies to you.
Planning from a city? See onsen near Tokyo, the best onsen near Osaka and Kyoto and Jozankei, Sapporo's own onsen town. Or start from the map in where Japan's hot springs are.